Pickled Mushrooms, Jell-O Dessert, Fruitcake and Divinity Candy Recipes

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Originally only four flavors of Jell-O were offered: orange, lemon, strawberry and raspberry. Currently, there are 40 flavors of powdered Jell-O on the market. Lori Dunn

Until the 1890s, gelatine or gelatin — a substance made from the collagen in animal skin and bones — was odorless, colorless and tasteless. Along came carpenter and cough remedy maker Pearle B. Wait from LeRoy, New York. His 1897 experiments added fruit flavoring to the gelatin to make a dessert his wife, May, named Jell-O. And the rest is history. (Keep reading for Jell-O Dessert recipes and some other great recipes you'll want to try.)  

Wait sold his formula to another LeRoy resident, Orator Frank Woodward, known as O.F., for the tidy sum of $450. Woodward began manufacturing Jell-O in 1899, with the help of Andrew Nico of Lyons, New York. In a moment of gloom — sales had been abysmal — Woodward offered the Jell-O formula to Nico for a mere $35. Before the deal could go through, however, an advertising campaign took root and sales began to skyrocket.

Woodward’s Genesee Pure Food Co. first used the name “Jell-O” in 1900. Postum bought the company in 1925, which became General Foods in 1927. Another ad campaign in the 1930s spelled out “J-E-L-L-O” as a sponsorship of the Jack Benny radio show. And the 1950s saw the popularity soar for molded gelatin salads, with sales booming.

The 1960s found Jell-O promoted as a light dessert, with the advertising slogan, “There’s always room for Jell-O.” In 1989, General Foods merged with Kraft Foods.

Originally only four flavors of Jell-O were offered: orange, lemon, strawberry and raspberry. Lime joined the group in 1930. Currently, 40 flavors of powdered Jell-O are on the market along with 11 prepared Jell-O gelatin snack combinations, 57 pudding products and eight NoBake desserts.

You can learn more about Jell-O and its history at the Jell-O Gallery, a museum on Main Street in LeRoy, which now has a population of about 7,600. 

Jell-O has come a long way since 1897. Now check out the family favorite Jell-O dessert recipes sent in by our readers along with Pickled Mushroom Recipes, Divinity Candy Recipes and more.

JELL-O DESSERT RECIPES FROM GRIT READERS 

Sandra Ward, Sacramento, California, requested a Lemon Jell-O Cake recipe she remembered from the 1950s or ’60s. It included a white or yellow cake mix and lemon-flavored gelatin.  

Lemon Jell-O Cake Recipe
Lemon Poke Cake Recipe
Nelda's Lemon Pudding Cake Recipe
Sue's Lemon Jell-O Cake Recipe